Girlyman plays Saturday at The Ark in Ann Arbor

The group's shimmering three-part harmonies are at the forefront of their brisk and buoyant - but unique - brand of folk-pop.

"The acoustic-based harmony-vocal acts of the 1960s-'70s are pretty big influences, like Simon & Garfunkel and the Mamas and the Papas," says Nate Borofsky, one member of the trio. "And I guess the Indigo Girls would be a pretty good reference point as well."

Girlyman, who come to The Ark on Saturday, also toss the lead-vocal parts back and forth, a la the Band, the Roches and classic gospel groups like the Staple Singers. The group's distinctive sound is partly due to the eclectic instrumentation - a mix of electric baritone guitar, djembe, mandolin and banjo, as well as acoustic guitar.

In addition to Borofsky, the trio includes Ty Greenstein and Doris Muramatsu. Their lastest disc is a live album, "Somewhere Different Now," an ambitious 29-track effort that's a more accurate reflection of the Girlyman spirit than their previous two studio albums, Borofsky says.

"We wanted to give our fans something that better captures the total vibe of what we do," he says. "We're proud of our studio albums, but the songs are mostly pretty serious. When we play live, though, there's a lot of light-hearted, playful banter, and we wanted to capture that on a CD."

The group is working on its next studio disc, recording it in Borofsky's home. "We're having fun with it, and doing things we wouldn't necessarily be able to do live, by overdubbing keyboards and guitars and multiple voices and drums. Our attitude right now is, 'Let's let it stand on its own as a song, instead of being limited by what we can reproduce onstage because there's only three of us.'

"We figure we'll work that stuff out that later."

As for the group's playfully provocative "Girlyman" moniker - Borofsky wears lipstick and eye makeup onstage and in their CD-cover photos - their music is often referred to as "gender pop" and they have ties to the Indigo Girls - they were initially signed by the Indigos' Amy Ray, and have opened for the Indigos many times, helping to build their own strong following in the gay community.

So, working from those cues, could the casual listener or audience member - someone who is not already a devoted fan of the group - reasonably conclude, without being accused of stereotyping, that some of the group members are gay? And that it's a big part of their group identity?

"Yeah, that would be an accurate assumption," Borofsky says. "Although, we prefer to use the catchall term 'queer' - that's how all three of us identify ourselves, because we think that term better captures the entire range of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community. Gender issues are something all of us have dealt with in our lives, because none of us have ever quite felt that we fit into 'normal' roles."

Beyond that, Borofsky says, "we prefer not to get into specifics, in terms of which of us goes to bed with a same-sex partner. We don't think that who we sleep with is particularly interesting, in terms of the group's identity or the music."